This invention relates to a supplementary device, such as a charging, cleaning and/or diagnosis device, for a small electric device, such as an electric hair cutting or hair removal apparatus or an electric toothbrush, but particularly for an electric shaving apparatus, and a method for detecting the presence of an electric and/or magnetic connection between said devices.
A method for transmitting data between a small electric device, such as an electric hair cutting apparatus, an electric toothbrush or a domestic appliance, and an electric supplementary device, such as a charging, cleaning or diagnosis device designed to be connected to it, is described along with accordingly designed devices in DE 198 17 273. Data is transmitted along electric and/or magnetic routes, e.g., in the case of a small electric device equipped with a power socket via the electric power socket and in the case of a small electric device powered by a primary battery via the battery contacts. The transmission of data is also understood to mean the transmission of control commands which, issued from the supplementary device for example, can activate particular functions of the small electric device. If, for example, the small electric device is an electric shaving apparatus and the supplementary device a cleaning device for the shaving apparatus, such as is described in DE 44 02 236 A1, it will be possible, for example, for the cleaning device to switch the shaving apparatus on and off at the correct moment in the cleaning cycle and also, where required, to charge a storage battery accommodated in the shaving apparatus.
From DE 196 06 719 C2 there is known an electric shaving apparatus having a controller capable of issuing a signal indicative of the need to clean the shaving apparatus, and a cleaning device for a shaving apparatus which simultaneously acts as a holder for the shaving apparatus. When the shaving apparatus is inserted in the cleaning device, the controller can be connected via the mains contact of the shaving apparatus to the cleaning device in such a way that a transmission of signals between the shaving apparatus and the cleaning device is possible. To prevent the cleaning device from performing a cleaning operation unnecessarily each time the shaving apparatus is placed back in its holder, the cleaning device is activated only when the controller sends a corresponding signal to the cleaning device. Hence a shaving apparatus which has no controller to issue a cleaning signal cannot be cleaned in this cleaning device.